


The Youngest Member of the White Lotus

by Odae



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28317333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odae/pseuds/Odae
Summary: On a trip to Ba Sing Se, Zuko learns Sokka is a member of the Order of the White Lotus, and then maybe some other things Sokka never told him.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 25
Kudos: 278





	The Youngest Member of the White Lotus

**Author's Note:**

> this is a secret santa gift for [heartgf](https://heartgf.tumblr.com/) on tumblr! hope you like it!

“Look, he’s getting up to look in the mirror again,” a bubbly voice giggled.

“That’s the fifth time,” came a monotone reply. “Doesn’t he know his hair won’t change just from sitting in place?”

“I think it’s cute,” the bubbly voice gushed. “He cares so much about Iroh’s opinion.”

“Almost as much as he cares about Sokka’s.”

“You know I can hear you, right?” Zuko said gruffly. He turned away from the mirror hanging on the wall to face Mai and Ty Lee. Mai’s expression was the picture of indifference as she curled up in the sumptuous cushions of the divan while Ty Lee beamed up at him from her headstand.

“We know,” Ty Lee said brightly. 

“And it’s not true,” Zuko said gruffly. He stalked across the airship lounge to sit on the divan across from Mai’s, his legs wide and his arms crossed. “I don’t.”

Ty Lee frowned and tumbled gracefully out of her headstand and onto the floor. She crossed her legs, her hands holding onto her ankles, as she looked up at Zuko. “Did something happen with your uncle?” she asked sadly. “Is that why we’re going to visit him?”

“What? No!” Zuko cried. “I meant what Mai said .”

Mai smirked. “So, you don’t care what Sokka thinks?”

“Not the way you mean.” 

Ty Lee giggled and crawled over to sit at Mai’s feet, her head landing on her knees. “You were right, Mai,” she said with a grin, “he  _ is _ still in denial.”

Zuko scowled at her. “Sokka and I are just friends.”

“Sure,” Mai said, “and you haven’t been moping in the three months since you saw him.”

A sigh came from the young Fire Lord as he slumped further into the divan. “I’m not  _ moping _ .”

Mai’s eyebrows rose by a millimeter, and Zuko flinched in response. 

“I won’t see him until next year!” he cried defensively.

“Aw, Zuko.” Ty Lee smiled at him sympathetically. “I know it’s hard doing long distance.” She reached up to take Mai’s hand in hers. The other girl smiled softly in response. “Back when I was training with the Kyoshi Warriors, I missed Mai all the time,” Ty Lee began. “I thought I’d never see her again, and letters were never enough, that I almost quit training just to go back and see her.” She giggled. “Turns out Mai had the same idea, because she came and surprised me!” She smiled up at Zuko, the nostalgic look now gone from her eye. “I’m sure you’ll see him sooner than you think.”

Rather than being cheered, Zuko huffed in response. “We’re not doing  _ long distance. _ ”

“Only because you haven’t told him how you feel,” said Mai.

Zuko groaned in exasperation, throwing his arms into the air. His hands landed on his upturned face. “I don’t know why I brought you!”

“Because two girls accompanying you to the Earth Kingdom capital looks a lot less threatening than your royal guards,” Mai said. She smirked. “Even if we’re actually more dangerous.”

“That, and I want to see your uncle, too,” Ty Lee added. She grinned up at him. “He’s so funny. And he gives good advice.”

“What kind of advice could you be looking for?” Mai asked, her voice just slightly tinged with an emotional edge.

Ty Lee turned back around and laid her hand on Mai’s knee. “Well, nothing  _ now _ ,” she said reassuringly, “but he was the one who helped me realize I had to be true to my heart and tell you how I felt.” 

Mai looked away, hiding her tiny, pleased smile behind her hand. Satisfied with her reaction, Ty Lee turned back to face Zuko. “Maybe he’ll tell you the same thing,” she said. Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Another huff erupted from Zuko’s mouth, and he pulled his silk and fur windcoat up over his ears. “I don’t know why he would,” he said. His arms crossed against his chest, and he looked away from her at the red-carpeted floor.

The airship heaved a great sigh, and with a couple more creaks and groans, began a speedy descent toward the earth. A quick glance out the portholes revealed that they were now flying over the stretches of farmland outside Ba Sing Se.

Mai reached out a hand to steady Zuko against the sudden change of the airship’s direction, and then brought him down to sit next to her. “Either way,” she said, her brows just slightly creased in concern, “we’ll see him soon.”

* * *

The trip from the air field outside of Ba Sing Se to the city’s Upper Ring took hardly any time at all, especially without the elaborate tour the Fire Lord was usually subjected to upon his arrival. Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee landed in front of the Jasmine Dragon with plenty of time before the afternoon rush, when customers poured into the shop to talk business or meet foreign dignitaries or take a light refreshment after shopping. But when they went to open the door, it was locked.

“Maybe you got the hours wrong,” Mai said as Zuko pounded away at the door. “It has been years since you worked here.”

“Maybe your uncle’s on vacation?” Ty Lee supplied as an explanation. 

“Uncle isn’t on vacation,” Zuko replied, his frustration clear in his voice. “The tea shop is like a vacation from the rest of his messed up life. He never closes.”

Mai and Ty Lee exchanged a look from behind him. 

Suddenly, the  _ click _ of a lock turning came from the door, and Zuko jumped back just in time for it to slide open slightly in front of him. 

“We are closed today for —Zuko?” The door opened wider to reveal Iroh standing in blue robes, a top knot tied above his round bald patch. He smiled widely, reaching his arms out to pull Zuko into a hug, though he glanced behind himself a few times while doing so. “To what do I owe this visit?” he asked. 

“I had a couple of days free from meetings, and I thought Mai and Ty Lee and I could come see you,” Zuko replied, stepping back. 

Now Iroh noticed the girls. “How nice to see you, ladies!” he called. Then he turned back to Zuko, and it struck him just how pained his uncle looked. “I am very happy to have you here, Zuko, but unfortunately, now is not a very good time.”

Zuko reared back. “What?” 

The door slid closed as Iroh stepped forward, his expression turning apologetic. “Maybe you could send a note beforehand next time, or something to let me know about your arrival,” he said in explanation. “You are more than welcome anytime, but maybe you could come back in a few hours? I am really in the middle of something. A late dinner, perhaps?”

“What could you be doing besides making tea?” Zuko asked, completely bewildered.

“Nothing, nothing,” Iroh said, waving his hand. The wide grin on his face remained highly suspicious, however.

The door scraped open from behind them. “Pakku and Jeong Jeong finally stopped fighting if you wanna start—what!” 

Standing in the doorway was a familiar Water Tribe warrior, complete with a wolftail and a boomerang strapped to his thigh. Zuko lost his breath at his wide grin and bright eyes. 

“Zuko! I didn’t know you were gonna be here!”

“Hi, Sokka,” he replied weakly, and was promptly swept up into a rib-cracking hug. 

“If I’d known you were in Ba Sing Se I would have just crashed with you,” Sokka said, letting him go and standing back. Zuko tried his best to ignore the way Sokka’s eyes swept up and down his figure, knowing it meant nothing. “Everyone knows the Fire Lord’s got the best setup in town. Next to the Earth King, that is.”

“We just got here,” Zuko said in explanation, sweeping his hand toward Mai and Ty Lee. Sokka brightened again as he noticed them. 

“Honestly, Zuko was right,” Mai said Ty Lee with, “I don’t know why we came with him.”

“Ty Lee! Mai!” 

Ty Lee giggled and rushed forward to meet Sokka in another hug. “Hi, cutie,” she said. “Your aura’s so bright! Being back in the South Pole seems to be doing you good.”

“Ahh, you know, it suits me,” Sokka replied with a broad smile.

Zuko knew Ty Lee and Sokka had soft spots for each other after all these years, but he still felt the creeping nausea of envy at the casual affection they shared. He sighed heavily as Ty Lee let Sokka go to greet Mai. 

“What a crazy coincidence, huh?” Ty Lee said, sidling up to Zuko’s side. 

He looked down at her. “What?”

“No, nothing,” she said, hiding a laugh behind her hand as she watched Mai roll her eyes at a joke of Sokka’s. “Just that it’s funny Sokka’s here the day you choose to visit your uncle.” She looked up at Zuko, her face soft with wonder. “It’s almost like fate.”

“It’s not fate,” he hissed. 

“Whatever you say, Zuko.”

Sokka let out a snort at some dry comment Mai had made. “Of course he is,” Zuko heard him say. 

“What was that?” Ty Lee called. 

“Mai says Zuko’s been complaining about the cold,” he said, loudly now. 

“No, I haven’t!”

“Yes, you have,” Mai rebutted. 

Sokka laughed again. “Don’t worry, Zuko,” he said, walking over to loop an arm across his shoulders. “You can admit how bad you are at living in winter.” He turned to Mai and Ty Lee. “Last time he came to the South Pole, he was so cold he had to borrow my parka, and every night he made me sit with him by the fire until he fell asleep!”

“Did he,” Mai deadpanned, and Zuko ignored her as Ty Lee dissolved into a fit of giggles.

“I hate to interrupt,” came Iroh’s voice, and the group turned to find him watching them with keen eyes, a small smile playing across his face. He fixed his gaze on Sokka. “But I believe we have a meeting to get to?”

“Oh, right.” Sokka let go of Zuko to start following Iroh toward the door. His head rose suddenly as a thought seemed to occur to him, and he turned to address the three behind him. “Wait, you guys aren’t here for the meeting, are you?”

“What meeting?” Zuko asked, trying to keep his voice from approaching anything demanding. 

“We didn’t even know there was a meeting,” Mai said.

Sokka looked to Iroh questioningly. “For the Order—?” He stopped when Iroh shook his head. “ _ Oh. _ ”

Zuko looked between them, confused at the seeming rapport they shared. Sokka had always been respectful to his uncle, but everyone knew that of their friends, Toph was the favorite. They definitely could not have known each other well enough to be trading secret looks, like they were suddenly part of the same secret club. 

Then it hit him, and his eyes widened as understanding dawned on him. “Sokka,” Zuko said, “you’re in the White Lotus?”

A beat passed where Sokka just stared sheepishly at Iroh, desperately avoiding eye contact with Zuko. Then, Iroh nodded, just slightly, and Sokka sagged with a sigh of relief. 

“Yeah,” he said finally. 

“I didn’t know—”

“It would be rude to keep our fellow members waiting,” Iroh said, opening the door to the tea shop, “no matter how long they have kept  _ us  _ waiting.” He and Sokka exchanged a knowing look, and then he turned back to Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee. “Come inside. I will make you a pot of tea, and you can wait upstairs. Our meeting is downstairs.” 

“In the cellar?” Zuko asked disbelievingly. He grimaced. “But it’s so dingy down there.”

Sokka laughed again. “You were right,” he said to Iroh. “Even Zuko wouldn’t know where to find it.”

“Find  _ what _ ?” Zuko demanded, but stopped just short of an outburst as Iroh clapped a hand on his shoulder. 

“Tea first, and our meeting,” Iroh said. He smiled. “And then you can all catch up.”

* * *

In the quiet of the penthouse in Ba Sing Se’s finest hotel in the Upper Ring, next to the roaring fire, with hot, milky chai in their hands, things felt normal again. Zuko could look up from his cup and find Sokka’s eyes steadily staring back into his. It didn’t feel like something he had to question then. It didn’t feel like something he had to worry about his uncle seeing, or that he would have to justify to Mai and Ty Lee. It felt right.

It felt like them.

Mai and Ty Lee had gone to bed an hour before, Ty Lee insisting that they were simply too tired to say, and that they absolutely  _ couldn’t _ stay awake for even another hour. Never mind it was only a few hours after sunset. If Zuko’s excitement hadn’t overruled his nerves at seeing Sokka he would have done more than just rolled his eyes at the cheeky thumbs-up Ty Lee shot him on her way out with Mai.

Now it was just them. Zuko was glad. There was something he had wanted to know more about all afternoon and evening.

“So, the White Lotus,” he said, hoping for a casual tone. From the amused raise of Sokka’s eyebrow, he could tell he had failed. He pushed on. “How did that  _ really _ happen?”

Sokka shook his head. “It’s like I said at dinner.”

At one of the tables at the Jasmine Dragon, after Iroh had brought out bowls of rice and dishes of grilled eel and steamed tofu in soy sauce and fried eggplant, they had recounted the story.

“I didn’t realize that Master Piandao basically tapped me for it during the war,” Sokka had explained, making a joke of it as he always did. “But a couple years later he formally nominated me as a new member, and when Gran Gran found out, she forced Pakku to back him up.” He grinned then at Zuko. “Then, after a few rounds of paisho with your uncle, he spoke for me, too. I didn’t know about any of it until Master Piandao invited me back to Shujing for my first meeting.”

“It is a good thing he let me win the last game,” Iroh had said with a wide grin, “otherwise I am not so sure I could have supported his becoming a member.”

Now, looking at Sokka’s face lit up by the fire, Zuko smiled, knowing his uncle would have come around to supporting him with or without the paisho.

“When?” Zuko asked.

Sokka leaned back against the daybed behind them. “I joined when I was eighteen,” he said eventually. “So. Three years.”

“Wow.”

Sokka made a show of wincing. “What, are you surprised?”

“No,” Zuko said honestly. “You’re smart and brave and a good leader. I think they’d be crazy not to want you.”

All Zuko could hear was the roar of the fire. He looked up to find Sokka watching him, his mouth just slightly open in surprise. He practically glowed at Zuko’s words.

“It is a long time, though, when you’re so young,” Zuko quickly added.

“Yeah,” Sokka said. “Apparently I’m the youngest member in the order’s history.”

“Ever?”

Sokka turned smug now, a lazy grin lifting the corner of his mouth. Zuko’s heart flipped at the sight. “Youngest member of the Order of the White Lotus, ever.”

“That’s a good title.”

The daybed creaked slightly as Sokka leaned further against it. “Yeah,” he sighed.

“Doesn’t get me very far, though.”

“Really?”

“No special deals at markets, no one buying me drinks or anything.”

Zuko grinned. “What, no one wants to hit on the youngest ever member of the White Lotus?” he teased.

“Well, it’s not like I’m running around telling people about it,” Sokka argued. There was no malice in it, just the playfulness Zuko enjoyed sharing with him. “Where’s the fun in being part of a secret society if it isn’t a secret?”

Zuko laughed. “Even if it might get you a good deal?”

“Even if it’ll get me a good deal.” Sokka nodded.

They sat for a moment in companionable silence, interrupted only by the occasional sip of their beverages. Zuko kept his warm through the palm of his hand.

“Who else knows?” he asked.

“The other members. Katara, so Aang, too. My dad, Bato, Gran Gran, and now you.”

Zuko nodded. He turned to face the fire again, hoping it might help him avoid Sokka’s steady gaze. “I’m glad you told me,” he said quietly.

“I’m glad you know,” said Sokka.

Zuko turned to raise an eyebrow at him. “Even three years later.”

A long groan flew out of Sokka’s throat, and his head fell back in exasperation. “Do I have to remind you that it’s a secret society? It’s supposed to be a  _ secret _ !”

Zuko couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of him, and he reached forward to lay a reassuring hand on Sokka’s arm. “I know,” he said. He hoped desperately that he wasn’t flushing as Sokka looked at him again. He cleared his throat. “What does Katara think?”

Sokka rolled his eyes and took a sip of his chai, but he did nothing to move away from Zuko’s hand.

“She says she thinks it’s good for me,” he said.

“How?” Zuko asked. He moved his hand away and rose to sit on the daybed, just to give his body something else to do.

Sokka sighed and turned to lean once again on the daybed, tilting his chin and laying it on one of his hands to look up at Zuko. “She says I get mopey at home. Not at first, but after a while.”

Zuko almost laughed. “Mai says the same thing about me.”

Sokka grinned. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“What would the Fire Lord have to mope about? All of the peace you’ve been bringing to the world? All of the subjects who adore you?”

Zuko looked down at his hands clasped around his cup. “Um. Mai thinks it’s from missing you, actually.”

He could feel the Sokka went still next to him, how the energy between them suddenly shifted to something Zuko couldn’t quite identify. Despite the fire still blazing in front of them, Zuko felt cold all over. Then, Sokka rose to stand, and a panic began rising in Zuko at the thought that he might be leaving, that it might be too much.

He gasped as Sokka leaned forward, his hand landing on Zuko’s cheek. His eyes widened at the intensity of Sokka’s expression.

“And what do you think?” Sokka asked. His voice was deep, and low. “Have you missed me?”

Zuko closed his eyes. “Yes,” he breathed, and all at once, his mouth was cut off from saying another word, because Sokka was kissing him.

At first Zuko could only blink in surprise, but soon he was placing his arms around Sokka’s neck and pulling him closer, tilting his head and opening his mouth just slightly to get more of Sokka, to have him properly. He was rewarded with the soft slide of Sokka’s tongue against his, and maybe it was not the most chaste of first kisses, but to Zuko it felt right. It felt like them.

Sokka broke the kiss with a small gasp, and he landed on his knees so that he was now looking up at Zuko. A strand of his hair had fallen into his eyes, and Zuko carefully tucked it back into his wolftail, marveling all the while that he could.

“I missed you, too,” Sokka said breathlessly.

With the way his heart was swelling, Zuko couldn’t trust himself to speak, so he just smiled, and pulled Sokka onto the daybed to kiss him some more.

“Oh, shoot,” Sokka said what could have been minutes or hours afterward. Zuko looked in the same direction he was facing to find that white flakes were falling under the streetlights outside, landing on mounds of snow on the ground. It looked like those prints Zuko had seen, the “Visit Ba Sing Se!” ones, with children playing in snowbanks and festival stalls selling bright lanterns lining the streets.

“It’s beautiful,” Zuko breathed.

“It is,” Sokka agreed, and he turned back to kiss Zuko once more, just a sweet press of his lips in a promise. “But it’s also a pain,” he said with a sardonic grin. “I should get going if I don’t want to get stuck here.”

He rose and began picking up his things: the cup on the floor, his messenger bag in the corner, his sword. He stood just a foot away from Zuko once he had gathered everything, seeming to mull over his next words.

Zuko couldn’t have that. “Sokka,” he said. Zuko took his hand and smiled up at him. There was so much he wanted to say to him, so much he wanted Sokka to know, from how many years he had wanted this to how happy he was to be with him. He could only hope Sokka could understand as he pulled him back onto the cushion where their legs could tangle together, and their hands could intertwine. Just to be sure, he whispered, “Stay.”

Sokka looked back down at him, his expression mirroring Zuko’s. “All right,” he breathed. 

And he did.

**Author's Note:**

> hope those who celebrate are having a lovely holiday! and in any case I hope you are cozy and warm and with people you love today!


End file.
